Qamar Jalalabadi

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Qamar Jalalabadi (1919 - 9th January, 2003), also known as Qamar Jalabadi, was a writer, particularly of soundtracks of bollywood movies.

"Ik Dil Ke Tukde Hazaar Huwe"

Qamar Jalalabadi wrote this unforgettable soulful song in 1948 for the film Pyar Ki Jeet. This was one of his personal favorites, and went on to be the lament in his life as he kept losing people he cared for one by one; and was forced into a final quagmire of loneliness as he weakly wrestled with the agonies of old age as well as a nondescript existence. There was no way to collect any of the remaining 'tukde' and join them, since they had disintegrated completely and were too far apart, so finally on 9th January 2003 he bid farewell to this pulsating Metropolis with its permanent rush hour sequence. His greatest attribute was his acceptance of life and other people on a complete as is where is basis. His philosophic manifestations took form in his songs, and even his most emotional ballad or romantic ditty conveyed a subtle hangover of philosophy.

He was born in a Punjabi family in 1917 in Amritsar, in a small town called Jalalabad, and was named Om Prakash. Right from the tender age of seven he starting writing poetry in Urdu. There was no encouragement from home, but a wandering minstrel poet named Amar met him in his hometown and encouraged him to write, recognizing his immense talent and potential. He also gave him the ‘takhallus’ of ‘Qamar’ which means moon, and Jalalabadi was added for effect because Qamarji hailed from that town. It was the general trend in those days for writers to name themselves after the towns they hailed from. After completing his matriculation from Amritsar, Qamarji embarked on his journalistic career journey by writing for Lahore based newspapers like Daily Milap, DailyPratap, Nirala, Star Sahakar. The lure of the Film industry brought him to Pune in the the early Forties. In 1942, he wrote lyrics for his first film Zameendar which was a Pancholi Pictures production and the songs of this film were very well received, especially the song sung by Shamshad Begum “Duniya me garibonko aaraam nahi milta….rote hain to hasne ka paigaam nahi milta…." which also had a line or two written by writer and poet Behzaad Lucknowi.

Extracted from an article at www.qamarjalalabadi.com written by Swar Jalalabadi, the daughter of Qamar Jalalabadi with her permission. (Kamaal Mustafa)

[edit] External links

• Qamar Jalalabadi at the Internet Movie Database
• Qamar Jalalabadi